Awasthi Group of Institutions, Nalagarh, Principal: Dr. Bhupender Kumar Jodhta Interview

Dr. Bhupender Kumar Jodhta has been working as the Principal of Awasthi Group of Institutions, Nalagarh, Maharashtra. He has done B. Ed, MA in Economics and LLB from Himachal Pradesh University of Shimla, LLM in Business Law from Kurukshetra University and PhD in Constitutional Law again form Himachal Pradesh University as part of his education. He is also a NET-UGC (Law) qualified from New Delhi. He has published 30+ research papers in international and national journals, 15+ articles in various international and national magazines and more than 5 chapters in books published by international and national publishers. In addition to this, he has delivered guest lectures in various government and private educational institutions, supervised 30+ students of LLM of IEC University and Kurukshetra University. And during his long tenure with the education sector and institutions, he has attended 20+ national and international seminars and webinars approved by various statutory bodies, 10+ workshops approved by UGC, ICTRA and other statutory bodies followed by various programs organized by esteemed educational agencies. He has also attended ParaLegal camps organized by NLSA, SLSA and DLSA. Before joining AGI, he has worked as a Chairman of the Committee for framing, drafting and updating the LLB, BA LLB (H.), B.Com. LLB (H.), LLM, PhD and 3 Law Diploma Courses Syllabus for School of Law - IEC University and as an Assistant Professor, Sports Incharge, Nodal Officer and Principal for HIMCAPES’ College of Badhera, Una - HP, Member of Para Legal Volunteer Cell in District Legal Service Authority at Una and Solan - HP, Convener of Sports and Extra Co-curricular Activities Committee and Convocation Organizing Committee, Member Secretary of Student Grievance Redressal Committee followed by Member of Unfair Means Cases Committee and Centre Superintendent, Ph.D, LL.M. & M.Phil. Entrance Test and as the Chairman, Centre for PostGraduate Legal Studies at IEC School of Law of IEC University of HP, Lecturer of Economics at Govt. Sen. Ser. School - Sarot and as an Associate Professor and Dean of IEC School of Law. 

Being the Principal and educational leader of AGI, what are your roles and responsibilities?

Apart from building the capacity of the educators, my prime responsibility being an educational leader and Principal of the college is to ensure and affirm that our programs and educational practices are not only dependent on traditional pedagogies but also includes the amazing concepts of self-inquiry and self-learning. And my main motto behind adopting this kind of approach is to give a holistic learning environment to students which is essential for their personal and professional development. 

How do you design an industry oriented course curriculum for enhancing students skills and making them future ready?

The curriculum of our college does not override theoretical knowledge and we have developed such a curriculum that is industry driven and is perfectly capable of instilling employment oriented skills, right attitude and work ethics in students. And we make sure to not only incorporate the innovative teaching techniques in it from time to time in accordance with industry standards and requirements but also to deliver the best quality knowledge of fundamentals to students. Apart from all this we also try to inculcate teamwork-like skills in our students while teaching them so that they can work in a team as well as an independent individual by using all the available resources, tools and technology in the corporate world. 

How has the pandemic impacted the education sector and what will be the future of online learning in the upcoming time?

The pandemic has impacted everyone and almost every sector, but if I talk specifically about the education world, it was impacted to an extent that we are still coping up with the side effects and losses. And whether we accept it or not, distance learning and online education will be in demand and will dominate the traditional education system in coming years as well. But with every new technology and teaching methodology comes a set of challenges that we as an educational institution need to address and fix on our own. So for sure, creation, maintenance and improvement of distance learning methodologies and then measuring and validating the learnings of an individual out of it is a real struggle and extra efforts are needed too, to find a method that measures individuals' learnings without using the traditional examination patterns.

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How has your college managed to keep students in sync and update them about the happenings of the outside world during pandemic?

As we all know that during the pandemic, modes of communication were dominated by the online platforms, hence we also used them as and when required to keep our students in sync with each other and uptodate with the latest trends, developments and technologies etc. And currently, we are predominantly dependent on messaging apps and emails to ensure an unbreakable communication with the students.

How do you ensure the healthy flow of knowledge in your college?

For the purpose of ensuring a healthy flow of knowledge and education in our institution, we follow the mixed approaches of top-down learning and bottom-up learning. And if I talk about the top-down learning strategy, in that our teachers first explain a topic or a concept in depth without explaining their individual components and then encourage students to learn the individual topics covered under them, and all this helps us know the kind of study material students should have access to and areas they need to explore more. Overall, the top-down approach involves direct interaction and involvement of students and empower them to understand the subject by applying their own personal experiences. On the other hand, if we talk about the bottom-up learning approach, so our faculty members starts educating students by telling them about the individual components of a subject and then gradually tell them about other things and on students side, they start with a question, do rigorous research about a topic and at last arrives to a conclusion. This approach also includes project based learning where students use intuitive reasoning to figure out the why, what and how of a topic or subject and then gather better understanding of it as a whole. 

What are the top priorities of your college in the coming 10 years?

The main aim of our college in the coming 10 years would be to give more focus on strengthening students' knowledge and personalize their learning experience as per individual students' needs. Because the Covid pandemic has ruined everything and between students learning and retaining power as they are now taking less interest in studies and are not focused also. Hence we believe giving them personalized learning experience and exposure would help us to address and rectify these gaps in the best way possible. 

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What are some of the greatest strengths of your college?

I firmly believe that the greatest strength of an educational institution lies in its people and the level of engagement between its faculty and students. And to ensure a great and positive engagement between faculty members and their students, it’s important for a college to develop a sense of community and belongingness in them towards each other. Hence for AGI, its main pillars of strength are its teachers and students and the amazing relationship they have maintained with each other, because they are the one who not only communicates but also engages themselves in productive debates and discussions which ultimately adds to students and institute growth and reputation enhancement.